Part 2 of 2: ATI, you are dead to me.

Remember what I said on my previous post:  Don't buy ATI.

If you manage to get your drivers installed (see previous post again), and your software is up and running, then count yourself lucky.  Don't ever touch that card, think about updating it's drivers, or even look at it sideways.  You'll regret it.

ATI Support Sucks

If you do end up having any problems with it, you can pretty much count yourself *** out of luck because ATI support either wont, or can't help you.

Basically, you cannot get anything out of the support department that doesn't already exist in the on-line knowledge base.  So the ATI support department is really just a much slower and poorer substitute for the search box you find on the web site.

The Last Straw - how we got here

I needed to get drivers for my ATI TV Wonder PCI card that I was moving to my desktop system.  They have pretty frequent driver updates available on their website so I tossed the original driver CD that came with the card because I knew I could always go download the latest drivers for the card whenever I wanted them.  That was a bad assumption...

I downloaded the latest drivers from the ATI website and found that they just wouldn't install.  It turns out that my card is the latest revision of the TV Wonder Pro PCI, but ATI doesn't include drivers for this version on their website - or they assume that the older drivers on the website will work with the new version of the card.

1. I opened a ticket to get a hold of the newer version of the drivers.  The ticket clearly said that the drivers on the website were not the drivers for the card and did not work with this card.
2. I got an automated response saying try those drivers I already found on the website. 
3. Re-open the ticket which was closed, and repeat myself... those drivers don't work and aren't the latest version.  Where can I get the latest version?
4. I got a response a day later saying that those drivers work perfectly fine.
5. Re-open the ticket and say, no... as I said in my original ticket submission, they don't work fine, at least not for me.  Can I get the latest drivers please or can you help me find out how to get these drivers successfully installed?
6. I then get a response 3 days later:
   "Only the drivers on the CD contained the correct drivers. You will have to purchase the CD that has the correct drivers for the card. Accessories can be purchased from the ATI online store."
7. That's it...
   Re-open the ticket
   "You've got to be kidding me. I need to *purchase* a driver CD?
   If it's not possible to make sure the drivers available for download for this card I purchased from ATI are available for download on the website, is it at least possible for someone in the support department to take the drivers for the card and ZIP them up and send them out??"

Closing

Based on my past experience with ATI support staff I don't expect them to do anything further than close the ticket again and again.  Their support staff is so un-helpful that they cannot simply grab the CD out of their testing/support department and ZIP UP the few small files that make up the driver and send it off to me to RESOLVE THE ISSUE.

I'm done.  Finished.  I've had enough and wasted so much time over the last several years on multiple ATI products and incapable support staff.  I know what a good support department can do (we have one) to help customers that need help, and based on my experiences and anecdotal evidence from the web it's clear that ATI support is broken.  It does not seem interested in solving customer problems.  So avoid the pain I've experienced by avoiding ATI.

/cc ATI Web master (I could find no email contact information for ATI Customer Care).